OMMUNITY  PROGRAM 


OF  GREATER  LOS  ANGELES 


ard  ij  Su: 


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i)  FOR  PR!- 


The 


Community  Program 

of 

Greater  Los  Angeles 


BTDNTCIP 


■■■(f'-\9t 


By 

JOHN  J.  HAMILTON 

Member  of  the  Board  of  Supervisors  oj 

Los  Angeles  County 


John  J.  Hamilton's  active  life  as  editor,  publisher, 
author,  publicist  and  citizen  has  been  excellent  prepara- 
tion for  his  work  as  a  member  of  the  Los  Angeles 
County  board  of  supervisors  and  for  leadership  in 
the  development  of  Greater  Los  Angeles. 

That  the  one  man  who  has  most  deeply  and  thor- 
oughly studied  the  civic  life  of  this  community — its 
city,  county  and  school  activities — should  now  make 
public  the  plan  on  which  he  is  working,  and  the  foun- 
dation principles  by  which  he  is  guided,  is  a  matter 
for  general  congratulation. 

Mr.  Hamilton  maintains  that  community  plans  are 
evolved  out  of  the  local  life,  not  made  by  politicians. 
The  community  program  presented  by  him  in  this 
booklet  is  therefore  w^hat  he  conceives  to  be  the  plan 
that  the  people  of  Los  Angeles  County — Greater  Los 
Angeles — have  themselves  originated,  under  the 
guidance  of  popular  instincts  truer  and  more  reliable 
than  the  leadership  of  any  individual  or  group  of 
individuals. 

Taking  as  his  end  and  aim  the  development  of  Los 
Angeles  County  as  an  industrial  center,  with  gainful 
employment  for  every  worker  and  profitable  business 
for  every  man  and  woman  seeking  openings  therefor; 
and  coupling  with  this  the  actual  record  of  the  city 
and  county's  strivings  for  good  government,  civic  bet- 
terment, good  roads,  harbor  and  marine  facilities,  flood 
control,  conservation  of  forests,  land  and  w^ater,  and 
educational  opportunities.  Supervisor  Hamilton  has 
reached  the  conclusion  that  Greater  Los  Angeles  does 
not  need  a  new  civic  program;  that  it  already  has  a 
community    program    which,    when   worked    out,    will 


make  this  county  the  best  place  in  the  world  to  live, 
work  and  play. 

That  this  program  will  be  made  good  while  men 
and  women  now  in  middle  life  are  still  living,  Mr. 
Hamilton  is  assured  by  the  results  of  his  thorough  and 
painstaking  investigations.  He  sets  forth  his  reasons 
for  this  belief  in  the  following  pages.  Like  every 
utterance  of  this  faithful  official  and  good  citizen,  they 
are  worthy  a  thoughtful  perusal. 

JAMES  S.  LEONARD. 


The  COMMUNITY   PROGRAM 
of  GREATER  LOS  ANGELES 


As  secretary  of  the  Los  Angeles  charter  revision 
commission  in  1912,  as  a  member  of  the  Pasadena 
board  of  e<^ucation  in  1914,  and  as  a  member  of  the 
Los  Angeles  County  board  of  supervisors  during  1915 
and  1916,  it  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  have  broader 
opportunities  than  most  citizens  enjoy  for  looking 
thoroughly,  with  official  authority,  into  the  three  prin- 
cipal divisions  of  local  public  life — municipal,  school 
and  county  government.  1  have  made  extended  sur- 
veys of  all  three. 

These  surveys  have  convinced  me  that  the  people 
of  Los  Angeles  County  and  its  thirty-seven  cities  and 
thirty-five  unincorporated  towns  are  working  out  a 
program  that  is  their  own,  independently  of  anybody's 
leadership;  a  program  clearly  defined  in  most  of  its 
features  and  unmistakably  indicated  by  local  history  in 
even  the  most  obscure  of  its  aims  and  objects.  This 
program  is  a  decalogue  of  grand  civic  determinations, 
all  of  which  I  believe  will  be  realized  during  the  lifetime 
of  men  and  women  now  in  middle  age,  and  is  as 
follows: 


The  Ten  Principal  Aims  and  Objects  of  the  People  of 
Greater  Los  Angeles — The  Community  Program 

1 .  Efficient  local  government,  thoroughly  co-ordi- 
nated, firmly  held  under  public  control,  based  solidly 
on  the  merit  system,  and  extended  to  all  properly 
public  activities,  insuring  a  rich  and  satisfying  commu- 
nity life  for  all,  at  a  minimum  cost. 

2.  The  best  schools  in  the  world,  economically  and 
democratically  managed. 


3.  The  saloon,  brothel  and  gambling  den  abolished 
in  ail  our  cities  and  the  county,  whether  prohibited  by 
the  state  or  not,  but  preferably  with  California  dry. 

4.  The  health  of  the  people  of  the  county  and  all 
its  cities  fully  safeguarded. 

5.  The  aged,  sick,  defective,  helpless  and  unfor- 
tunate generously  cared  for  through  a  system  of  scien- 
tific charities.  ,       r     n        •  u      * 

6.  Justice  placed  within  the  reach  of  all,  without 
the  law's  proverbial  delays. 

7.  The  good  roads  system  completed,  mciudmg 
mountain  and  canyon  roads,  and  better  local  roads 
everywhere. 

8.  Conservation  of  our  harbors,  forests,  watersheds 
and  ranch  lands  by  an  adequate  system  of  flood  and 
fire  prevention  and  control,  including  reforestation. 

9.  Publicly  owned  and  operated  transportation 
facilities  both  between  our  cities  and  local  harbors  and 
at  sea,  through  the  Panama  Canal  and  to  the  Orient. 

10.  Public  ownership  and  operation  of  plants  for 
securing  cheap  water,  power,  fuel  and  light  for  indus- 
trial and  domestic  use. 


Why  a  Look  into  Both  Past  and  Future  is  Just  Now 

Needful 

After  a  period  of  perhaps  the  most  wonderful  growth 
ever  experienced  by  a  city.  Greater  Los  Angeles  finds 
itself  under  troubled  but  slowly  clearing  skies.  Build- 
ing operations  in  this  city  and  county  amounted  in  the 
two  years  of  1  9  I  2  and  1  91  3  to  $1  00  000,000_and 
then  came  two  disastrous  floods  which  together  de- 
stroyed probably  $15,000,000  worth  of  land  and 
other  property;  a  frost  that  was  not  less  disastrous; 
the  collapse  of  a  speculative  real  estate  corporation 
in    which     eighteen     thousand     citizens    were     stock- 


holders  and  their  losses  heavier  and  deadlier  than 
those  caused  by  the  frost  and  the  two  floods  com- 
bined; the  stoppage  of  the  Panama  Canal  for  many 
months,  and  a  world  war  which  crushed  industry  and 
paralyzed  finance  and  commerce  everywhere. 

The  reaction  has  been  severe.  Speculation  in  real 
estate — seriously  called  our  "principal  industry"  by 
a  prominent  man  in  a  recent  address — has  ceased  and 
refused,  under  all  sorts  of  stimuli,  to  come  to  life. 
Discouragement  and  pessimism  have  in  many  quarters 
taken  the  place  of  excessive  optimism  and  feverish 
over-confidence.  A  bond  issue  for  good  roads  and 
several  issues  for  schools  and  local  improvements  have 
been  defeated.  It  is  freely  predicted  that  a  vitally 
important  bond  issue  for  harbor  protection,  land  and 
water  conservation  and  flood  control  will  not  receive 
approval  at  the  polls.  The  remark  is  often  heard 
that  no  bond  issue  of  any  kind  can  be  carried  in  the 
present  temper  of  the  people,  which  means  that  the 
people  will  refuse  capital,  at  low  rates  of  interest,  to 
develop  their  own  resources.  Investors  in  real  estate 
are  finding  it  impossible  to  dispose  of  their  holdings, 
and  diflficult  to  rent  offices,  store-rooms,  residences 
and  other  buildings  or  to  collect  rentals  from  the 
diminished  number  of  their  tenants.  There  was  much 
unemployment  a  year  ago;  there  is  less  but  still  much 
this  year.  Many  property  holders  are  borrowing 
money  to  pay  interest  and  taxes  and  keep  their  busi- 
ness going. 

And  yet  the  wonder  is  that  the  people  are  in  as 
good  spirits  as  they  are.  Owners  cling  to  their  real 
estate,  refusing  to  recognize  lower  levels  of  values. 
Building  permits  in  Los  Angeles  are  running  over 
$1,200,000  a  month,  and  in  the  county  (all  cities  and 
rural  districts  included)  more  than  $20,000,000  a 
year.      There  is,   deep  under  the  surface,   an  unshak- 


atle   faith   in   the   future   of  Greater  Los  Angeles,    or 
Los  Angeles  County. 

It  is  to  turn  the  attention  of  the  thoughtful  people 
of  Los  Angeles  County  to  the  solid  ground  for  this 
faith  and  confidence  that  this  booklet  is  written.  I 
believe  that  when  the  men  and  women  of  this  won- 
derful metropolitan  district  take  stock  of  its  advan- 
tages; when  they  perceive  how  grandly  their  com- 
munity is  planning;  when  they  realize  how  surely  this 
county,  its  thirty-seven  incorporated  cities,  its  thirty- 
five  unincorporated  towns  and  villages,  and  its  un- 
rivaled rural  districts  are  moving  forward  toward  a 
condition  promising  work  and  wages  for  every  worker 
and  prosperous  business  for  all  desiring  to  engage 
therein,  prosperity  sounder  than  that  of  1912  will 
return,  on  more  than  the  1912  scale. 


Our   Fundamental    Trouble   is    Lack   of   Employment 

and  Business  Openings  Outside  of  Real 

Estate  Speculation 

Before  entering  upon  official  life  in  the  city  and 
county  five  years  ago,  I  was  called  upon,  in  the  inter- 
est of  a  large  local  enterprise,  to  do  some  professional 
work  which  enabled  me  to  make  a  study  of  social 
and  economic  conditions  in  what  may  properly  now 
be  termed  Greater  Los  Angeles. 

Selecting  half  a  dozen  typical  neighborhoods  in 
Los  Angeles,  and  a  score  of  them  in  Long  Beach, 
Redondo,  Santa  Monica,  Venice,  Hollywood,  Glen- 
dale,  Pasadena,  Monrovia  and  Whittier,  1  visited  four 
hundred  homes  and  questioned  men  and  women  to 
that  number  in  a  manner  which  brought  out  their 
views  as  to  opportunities  for  work  and  business  in 
Southern  CcJiforni£u 


I  found  in  the  residence  districts  of  all  these  places, 
as  I  have  since  found  in  many  others,  a  remarkable 
wealth  of  human  resources  and  everjrwhere  heart- 
breaking lack  of  opportunities  for  employing  the 
people's^  talents  and  energies  and — outside  of  real 
estate — investing  their  money. 

On  the  porches  of  modest  bungalows  and  alike  on 
the  broad  verandahs  of  stately  palaces,  the  social 
surveyor  finds  here  everywhere,  in  retirement,  the 
successful  merchants,  manufacturers,  railway  men, 
professional  men  and  farmers  of  every  part  of  the 
country.  Get  them  to  talking  and  you  presently  learn 
that  these  modest  citizens  have  been  governors,  sena- 
tors, judges,  members  of  their  respective  state  legis- 
latures, college  professors,  authors,  publishers,  physi- 
cians, railway  managers,  merchants,  manufacturers, 
owners  of  steamship  lines,  artists,  men  of  science, 
social  leaders — attracted  hither  by  California's  sun- 
shine, flowers,  fruits,  vegetables  and  outdoor  life,  or 
lured  to  this  climate  by  the  promise  of  restoration  of 
health. 

But  everywhere,  in  the  homes  of  rich  and  poor 
alike,  is  the  pathetic  cry  for  work — for  something  use- 
ful and  profitable  to  do. 

Half  of  the  people  of  Los  Angeles  County  do  not 
have  to  work  for  a  livelihood.  Hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  them  have  incomes  amounting  to  a  compe- 
tency. Every  great  industry  in  the  United  States — 
every  profitable  mine,  railroad,  bank  and  factory, 
every  flourishing  agricultural  section — is  earning 
money  to  be  spent  in  Southern  California.  But  these 
successful  people,  retired  from  active  business  in  the 
east  and  middle  west,  are  not  happy  if  their  sons  and 
daughters  are  loafers,  joy-riders  and  parasites  on  the 
community.  They  are  as  anxious  to  find  work  as  the 
poorest.  Opening  a  real  estate  office,  with  desk,  chairs. 


a  telephone  and  a  stenographer,  does  not  satisfy  the 
craving  of  a  normal  American  for  something  to  do. 

The  children  of  these  well-to-do  people,  as  they 
come  of  age,  are  in  the  labor  market,  competing  with 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  poor  for  jobs  that 
will  not  go  round. 

Eighteen  months'  service  on  the  board  of  super- 
visors has  deepened  the  conviction  I  reached  five  years 
ago — that  the  fundamental  need  of  Greater  Los 
Angeles  is  employment  for  workers  and  legitimate 
industrial  and  commercial  openings  outside  of  real 
estate  for  men  and  women  of  means.  Dealing  as  a 
supervisor  with  the  problem  of  unemployment  and  as 
a  member  of  the  board  of  equalization  with  the  dis- 
tressed taxpayer,  I  am  ready  to  declare  that  nothing 
short  of  the  complete  and  early  development  of  the 
material,  intellectual  and  moral  resources  of  Los 
Angeles  County,  in  accordance  with  the  program  the 
people  have  themselves  initiated  and  carried  far  to- 
ward completion,  will  set  us  right. 


This  County  the  Framework  of  One  of  the  World's 
Great  Cities  or  Metropolitan  Districts 

In  the  first  address  I  ever  made  before  the  Los 
Angeles  City  Club — it  was  at  the  Westminster  Hotel, 
in  1911  — I  maintained  that  the  county  was  the  true 
unit  of  local  development  here;  that  the  good  roads 
system  was  the  future  street  plan  of  a  great  city,  and 
that  the  interurban  lines  were  to  mature  into  its  rapid 
transit  or  street  car  system.      I  still  believe  this. 

Los  Angeles  County  is  really  a  city,  a  metropolitan 
district  like  that  of  Boston  or  Greater  New  York,  only 
as  yet  more  loosely  built  and  knit  together.  The 
county  charter  adopted  in  1912  b  really  a  city  charter 
of   the   modern   conmibsion   type.      It   b   susceptible 


of  being  easily  modified,  without  charter  amendment, 
into  the  approved  manager  type.  Making  the  auditor 
controller  and  county  manager  is  clearly  within  the 
scope  of  the  supervisors'  powers.  It  is  my  ambition 
to'  have  a  part,  along  with  my  colleagues  of  the 
board,  in  realizing  the  immense  possibilities  of  the 
charter  in  this  direction. 

I  want  to  see  the  board  of  supervisors  meeting  every 
other  day — say  on  Mondays,  Wednesdays  and  Fri- 
days— as  a  legislative  body  for  this  great  metropolitan 
district,  rapidly  disposing  of  three  calendars  a  week 
instead  of  one,  its  orders  and  notifications  going  into 
effect  without  delay  or  red  tape. 

On  two  of  the  other  days — ^perhaps  Thursday  and 
Saturday — I  hope  to  see  the  supervisors  sitting  as  an 
administrative  body,  as  the  executive  committee  of 
this  great  two  billion  dollar  corporation;  receiving, 
verifying  and  checking  over  the  reports  of  the  auditor 
and  controller,  visiting  the  county  institutions,  con- 
ferring with  the  many  heads  of  departments  regard- 
ing their  plans  of  work,  their  efforts  to  improve 
service,  to  develop  team  w^ork  inside  of  their  depart- 
ments and  in  cooperating  with  other  departments, 
encouraging  and  rewarding  suggestions  of  economies 
that  will  reduce  taxation. 

On  the  sixth  day  of  the  week  I  would  have  the 
supervisors  out  among  their  constituents,  feeling  the 
pulse  of  the  people  and  studying  their  needs  and  wishes 
on  the  ground.  These  trips  could  be  made  singly  or 
as  a  body,  according  to  the  needs  of  administration. 

I  would  have  a  scientific  budget,  not  hurriedly 
thrown  together  in  midsummer,  but  in  process  of 
preparation  throughout  the  year.  When  roughly  com- 
pleted it  would  be  printed  and  widely  circulated  for 
citizen  criticism  and  suggestions  of  both  cuts  and 
additions. 

I   would   have   the    supervisors   as   a   representative 

10 


body,  both  legislative  and  administrative,  serving  as 
a  bond  of  union  among  all  the  cities  and  school 
districts  of  Greater  Los  Angeles,  cooperating  with 
each  in  making  economical  purchases  and  introducing 
the  best  methods  of  accounting,  preparing  reports  and 
administering  their  affairs. 

I  would  have  the  supervisors  and  the  city  councils 
and  school  boards  working,  together  with  the  women's 
clubs,  parent-teachers'  associations,  improvement  as- 
sociations, chambers  of  commerce  and  other  civic 
organizations,  to  carry  out  the  essential  proposals  in  the 
community  program;  the  people  in  their  civic  centers 
and  at  the  polls  all  the  while  adding  to,  subtracting 
from  or  modifying  that  program,  and  looking  many 
years  into  the  future  to  plan  ahead  their  activities. 


Consolidation  Under  the  County  Charter  vs.  County 
Dismemberment 

We  already  have,  in  the  county  charter,  the  basis 
for  genuine  city  and  county  consolidation,  without 
dismembering  Greater  Los  Angeles  into  three  ex- 
pensively managed  counties  and  thereby  tripling  the 
administrative  burdens  of  courts,  charities  and  high- 
ways. 

There  is  need  for  clear  thinking  on  this  subject  of 
city  and  county  consolidation.  It  is  fallacious  to  argue 
that  by  consolidating  neighboring  territory  and  set- 
ting up  a  combined  city  and  county  government  after 
the  San  Francisco  pattern,  driving  great  tributary  sec- 
tions into  outside  county  organizations,  Los  Angeles 
can  reduce  her  tax  burdens  or  restore  the  prosperity 
her  people  so  earnestly  desire.  The  city  is  spending 
95  cents  on  the  $100  for  its  schools,  $1.45  on  the 
$100    for   municipal    purposes   and    52    cents    on    the 


$100  for  county  purposes,  the  last  named  including 
courts,  charities,  roads  and  many  other  functions. 
County  consolidation  would  not  reduce  the  95  cents 
for  schools  or  the  $1.45  for  city  purposes.  The  only 
question  would  be  whether  the  combined  govern- 
ment could  carry  on  the  superior  courts,  the  county 
hospital,  the  county  farm,  the  outdoor  relief,  the  local 
portion  of  the  support  of  state  institutions  and  the 
score  of  other  county  functions  for  less  than  52  cents 
on  the  $100.  Efficiency  will  reduce  all  three — city, 
county  and  school  expenses — and  duplications  in  the 
offices  of  assessor,  tax  collector,  justices  of  the  peace, 
sheriff,  chief  of  police,  constabulary,  etc.,  must  be 
eliminated,  but  city  and  county  consolidation  on  a 
basis  of  setting  up  three  counties  instead  of  one  would 
increase,  not  diminish,  taxation. 

Los  Angeles  is  as  vitally  related  to  the  other  cities 
and  towns  of  the  county  as  if  they  were  within  its 
own  corporate  limits.  They  are  its  suburbs.  Its 
citizens  have  property  in  all  of  them.  Many  of  their 
citizens  own  Los  Angeles  property.  Many  more  sleep 
in  outside  towns  and  work  in  Los  Angeles.  To  take 
a  concrete  example  of  their  mutual  relations,  the  busi- 
ness done  in  Long  Beach,  the  development  of  Long 
Beach  Harbor,  and  the  success  of  Long  Beach  fac- 
tories are  as  beneficial  to  Los  Angeles  as  if  they  were 
situated  and  paid  taxes  in  Los  Angeles.  The  sole 
difference  is  that  the  taxes  they  pay  are  expended  for 
their  benefit  through  the  Long  Beach  City  Hall  instead 
of  the  Los  Angeles  City  Hall.  There  is  no  payment 
of  tribute  either  way. 

Los  Angeles  now  proposes  to  retail  its  electric  cur- 
rent to  other  municipalities.  It  could  just  as  well 
afford  to  sell  them  Owens  river  water  at  a  price  that 
would  pay  cost  of  operation  and  interest  and  principal 
of  the  bonds.  It  would  be  no  violation  of  the  spirit 
of  the  agreement  with  the  federal  government. 

12 


The  essential  fact  is  that  all  the  cities  and  rural 
districts  of  the  county,  connected  as  they  are  by  the 
boulevard  and  interurban  systems,  are  one  community, 
with  identical  interests.  The  chartered  county  of  Los 
Angeles  is  the  sufficient  but  necessary  bond  holding 
them  together.  It  is  the  future  city,  and  the  various 
municipalities,  handling  their  local  affairs,  are  the 
future  boroughs  of  that  city.  The  true  line  of 
development  is  by  transferring  city  functions,  one  by 
one,  from  all  the  cities  to  the  county,  until  all  duplica- 
tions are  wiped  out  and  city  and  county  consolidation 
is  accomplished  on  a  sound  basis. 

To  effect  this,  however,  boss  rule,  red  tape,  graft, 
waste  and  incompetency  must  cease  at  the  Hall  of 
Records.  Neither  city  nor  county  can  now  be  im- 
plicitly trusted  with  the  vast  interests  of  a  consolidated 
community.  It  remains  for  the  board  of  supervisors 
to  demonstrate,  by  efficient  administration,  that  it  is 
better  to  hold  Los  Angeles  County — America's  most 
productive  county — together  as  one  splendid  com- 
munity, rather  than  to  dismember  it.  Certainly  if  the 
Antelope,  San  Fernando  and  San  Gabriel  valleys  were 
in  other  counties  and  knocking  at  our  doors  for 
admission  into  Los  Angeles  County  they  would  be 
welcomed  with  open  arms. 


Carrjring   Out   the   Community   Program   Will   Insure 

Emplojrment   and   Business  for  All 

There  is  no  doubt  whatever  about  the  continued 
growth  of  Greater  Los  Angeles  in  population.  If  the 
Los  Angeles  of  the  past,  with  its  water  largely  wasted, 
with  earthen  roads  enveloping  homes,  residences  and 
business  places  in  clouds  of  dust,  could  attract  half  a 
million  people,  a  more  populous  America  will  send 
millions  and  yet  more  millions  to  our  present  paradise 


of  good  roads,  sunshine,  verdure,  fruits  and  flowers. 
The  entire  Pacific  Coast,  from  San  Diego  to  Alaska, 
and  the  vast  Rocky  Mountain  region,  not  to  mention 
Mexico,  will  presently  teem  with  millions  of  people  to 
iFeed,  clothe,  educate,  house,  entertain  and  supply  with 
all  the  infinitely  varied  appliances  of  civilization. 

If  the  community  which  grappled  with  the  titanic 
enterprise  of  the  Owens  river  aqueduct,  and  thereby 
discovered  itself,  proceeds  to  reduce  taxation  by  dis- 
tributing the  aqueduct  water  on  a  businesslike  basis; 
to  develop  and  distribute  the  electrical  energy  which 
it  owns;  to  perfect  its  harbors,  and,  by  truck  highways 
and  a  publicly  owned  and  operated  municipal  rail- 
way, to  make  those  harbors  available  for  all  the 
population  centers  of  the  county  as  they  grow  together 
into  one  great  city;  if  by  timely  bond  issues  it  boldly 
accepts  the  world's  offers  of  abundant  capital  to  com- 
plete its  road  system,  to  protect  its  mountain  forests 
and  watersheds,  to  conserve  and  distribute  vast  stores 
of  mountain  water  now  wasted  and  worse  than  wasted, 
and  to  control  forever  the  floods  which  now  threaten 
to  destroy  our  cities,  our  lands  and  our  whole  basis 
of  investment  and  prosperity,  what  will   follow? 

The  certain  result  will  be  that  conditions  will  be 
created  in  the  thirty-seven  cities,  thirty-five  towns  and 
villages,  and  all  the  rural  districts  of  Los  Angeles 
County  that  will  be  more  favorable  to  manufacturing 
industries  and  will  constitute  a  combination  of  more 
favoring  elements  than  can  be  found  anjrwhere  else 
on  the  globe. 

Manufacturers   Cannot   Stay   Away   When   the   Com- 
munity Program  of  Greater  Los  Angeles 
is  Carried  Out 

Water  transportation  alone  has  made  many  a  city, 

14 


like  Cleveland  for  example,  a  manufacturing  center. 

Extensive  transportation  facilities  have  turned  the 
scale  in  favor  of  many  a  city,  like  Indianapolis,  in 
competing  for  industries. 

Cheap  raw  materials  are  everywhere  recognized  as 
of  tremendous  importance  in  securing  the  location  of 
manufacturing  industries,  as  at  Birmingham,  Alabama. 

Cheap  water,  fuel  and  power  always  count  in  de- 
termining the  location  of  branch  factories,  or  the 
removal  of  main  concerns,  as  in  the  cities  of  the 
Indiana  natural  gas  belt. 

Accessibility  to  the  world's  markets  is  a  magnet 
of  prime  importance  in  drawing  factories  to  a  city,  as 
in  the  New  England  cities. 

Favorable  climatic  conditions  are  manifestly  an 
inducement  to  the  manufacturer  seeking  a  location. 

A  population  of  trained  intelligence,  eager  for 
employment,  constitutes  an  immense  manufacturing 
advantage. 

A  low  rate  of  taxation,  guaranteed  by  good  local 
government,  cannot  fail  to  appeal  to  the  manufac- 
turer and  investor  in  industrial  stocks. 

Immunity  from  floods  and  conditions  of  settled 
safety  for  the  investor  in  lands  and  manufacturing 
sites,  insuring  the  well-being  of  the  community  and  all 
its  workers,  will  prove  very  attractive. 

Moral  conditions  insuring  sobriety,  thrift,  health 
and  a  high  average  of  comfort  among  the  people 
are  powerful  incentives  in  determining  an  industrial 
location. 

Carry  out  the  program  on  which  this  com- 
munity has  made  a  start — good  government,  good 
schools,  good  morals,  good  sanitation,  good  charitable 
agencies,  practical  justice,  good  roads,  conservation 
of  our  forests,  water  and  land,  adequate  flood  control, 
modern  harbors  with  rail  and  truck  facilities  to  reach 


15 


them,  a  publicly  owned  merchant  marine,  cheap  raw 
materials,  here  or  brought  here  by  water,  cheap  power, 
cheap  fuel,  cheap  light,  and  the  world  market  that 
all  these  things,  with  the  Panama  Canal,  certainly 
mean — and  machine  guns  could  not  keep  manufac- 
turers away.  Neither  could  all  the  obstructive  or 
competitive  forces  of  the  twentieth  century  prevent 
the  factories  already  here  from  expanding  in  un- 
bounded prosperity. 


What    the    Pennsylvania    Railroad    Would    Do    if    It 
Owned  Los  Angeles  County 

Not  long  ago  a  Los  Angeles  Sunday  newspaper 
published  an  article  intended  to  stimulate  local  pride 
and  ambition,  telling  what  the  Germans  would  do  if 
they  owned  Los  Angeles. 

What  the  Germans  have  done  at  Duesseldorf ;  what 
the  people  of  France  have  done  at  Paris,  and  what  the 
people  of  Great  Britain  have  done  at  Manchester — in 
short,  what  all  the  efficient  modern  nations  have  done 
in  their  cities — demonstrates  clearly  enough  what  they 
would  do  if  they  owned  this  most  favored  region  on 
earth.  They  would  borrow  capitad  on  bond  issues  and 
at  once  develop  all  its  nnineral,  land  and  water  re- 
sources and  protect  them  from  destruction  by  floods. 
They  would  reap  gains  in  production  by  these  improve- 
ments sufficient  to  pay  both  interest  and  principal  with- 
out increased  taxation. 

But  a  more  pertinent  question  for  this  community 
is  what  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  w^ould  do  with  Los 
Angeles  County  if  it  owned  it. 

We  hear  much  about  running  public  business  just 
as  a  successfully  conducted  private  institution  or  cor- 
poration is  managed.  I  believe  in  doing  that  with 
Los  Angeles  City  and  County. 

16 


The  Pennsylvania  Railroad  has  had  immense  oppor- 
tunities, and  has  splendidly  risen  to  them  all,  but  it 
has  never  had  such  an  opportunity  as  that  which  lies 
open  to  the  people  of  Greater  Los  Angeles. 

The  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  not  nearly  as  rich  or 
free  from  debt  as  is  Los  Angeles  County,  has  an 
authorized  capital  stock  of  $600,000,000,  of  which 
$499,203,600  is  outstanding.  Its  own  funded  debt 
is  $234,701,000;  that  of  acquired  properties  it  is 
responsible  for  is  $56,569,100;  guaranteed  stock  trust 
certificates  amount  to  $14,121,000;  equipment  trust 
obligations  to  $19,950,224,  and  real  estate  mortgages 
and  ground  rents  to  $2,340,816 — its  total  borrowed 
capital  therefore  being  $32  7,682,140.  Although  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad,  with  less  than  one-third  the 
wealth  of  Los  Angeles  County — $2,000,000,000 — is 
in  debt  for  and  paying  interest  on  $32  7,682,140  (ten 
times  Los  Angeles*  aqueduct  indebtedness),  it  never 
turns  down  an  opportunity  to  secure  capital  by  bond 
issues  to  acquire  new^  properties  and  develop  old  ones. 

If  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  owned  the  Los  An- 
geles Harbor,  it  would  have  a  line  of  steamers  to  the 
Orient  and  another  via  the  Panama  Canal  to  New 
York  City  within  twelve  months.  Edward  H.  Harri- 
man,  James  J.  Hill  or  any  of  the  empire  builders 
of  the  past  would  have  been  quick  to  grasp  such  an 
opportunity. 

The  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  like  any  other  private 
corporation,  would  undertake  these  enterprises  for 
financial  gain.  The  civic  corporation  would  have  the 
further  incentive  of  contributing  to  social  welfare. 

Los  Angeles  County  can  secure  capital  at  4|/2  per 
cent  or  less.  Its  credit  is  as  good  as  that  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad  or  any  corporation  in  existence.  It 
is  today  better,  relatively  to  its  total  wealth,  than  that 
of  any  European  nation. 


17 


The  complete  execution  of  the  community  pro- 
gram of  Greater  Los  Angeles  is  within  easy  reach  of 
the  people.  They  only  need  to  awake  to  their  com- 
manding position  in  the  world  of  capital  and  to  put 
their  city  and  county  machinery  on  a  basis  of  efficiency 
and  then  seize  their  opportunity. 


The   Fallacious   and   Insincere   Outcry   Against   Bond 
Issues  is  Not  in  the  Interests  of  the  People 

This  two  billion  dollar  city  and  county  do  not 
owe,  for  all  their  great  harbor,  aqueduct,  municipal 
and  school  properties,  a  tithe  of  the  indebtedness  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad.  The  county's  indebtedness 
for  its  wonderful  road  system  is  only  $3,300,000.  Un- 
limited capital  is  available  for  flood  control,  conserva- 
tion and  other  features  of  the  really  modest  com- 
munity program  I  have  outlined;  but  whenever  far- 
seeing  men  propose  availing  themselves  of  this  capital, 
as  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  would  do,  there  is  an 
outcry  of  extravagance,  excessive  bonded  indebted- 
ness and  high  taxation  from  men  who  would  pro- 
nounce such  a  loan  by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  per- 
fectly good   business. 

This  outcry  against  bond  issues  is  fallacious.  It  is 
insincere.  It  is  not  in  the  public  interest.  Private, 
selfish  interests  are  back  of  it. 

A  few  people  do  not  want  the  city  and  county  to 
enter  the  immensely  profitable  field  of  commercial 
enterprise  because  they  want  it  all   for  themselves. 

They  prefer  their  private  profit  and  advantage  to 
the  public  welfare. 

Unfortunately,  the  great  frost,  the  two  disastrous 
floods  and  the  collapse  of  the  Los  Angeles  Invest- 
ment Company  have  disheartened  many  of  the  people 
and  made  them,  just  now,  susceptible  to  delusive 
appeals  of  this  character. 


Unfortunately,  too,  in  the  conduct  of  that  magnifi- 
cent enterprise,  the  Los  Angeles  aqueduct,  the  public 
men  of  the  city  were  too  conservative  and  timid  to 
champion  a  bond  issue  large  enough  to  carry  forward 
the  aqueduct,  its  distributing  system  and  the  entire 
power  system  at  the  same  time.  If  they  had  done  so 
(constitutional  and  charter  provisions  permitting),  the 
sale  of  water  and  power  today  would  be  sufficient  to 
carry  the  bonds,  principal  and  interest. 

The  public  is  justified  in  demanding  that  a  bond  issue 
be  for  the  benefit  of  the  entire  community  and  not  to 
creat  opportunities  for  a  few  to  profit  by;  but,  if  funds 
are  properly  administered,  the  public  cannot  justify 
itself  in  refusing,  through  fear  of  incurring  indebtedness, 
to  do  a  thing  which  ought  to  be  done;  for  example,  to 
spend  $15,000,000  in  permanently  controlling  floods 
which  have  in  two  years  destroyed  $1  5,000,000  worth 
of  taxable  property. 

Big,  bold,  carefully  planned  measures,  like  those 
of  Manchester  and  Duesseldorf,  and  like  those  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  are  safer  and  sounder  than 
timid,  halting,  half-way  measures. 


The  Program  as  Outlined   Has  Originated  With  the 

People  and  is  Entirely  Feasible 

It  is  with  the  community  program  outlined  in  this 
pamphlet  in  mind  that  my  course  as  a  member  of 
the  board  of  supervisors  is  chosen  from  day  to  day. 

This  program  is  not  of  my  making.  Every  one  of 
the  ten  proposals  originated  in  this  great,  aspiring 
community  and  is  cherished  deep  down  in  the  hearts 
of  the  people. 

If  there  be  any  exception,  it  is  the  suggestion  of  a 
publicly  owned  and  operated  merchant  marine.      But 


even  that  project  was  mooted  by  the  secretary  of  the 
Los  Angeles  Harbor  Commission,  as  long  ago  as 
1911,  in  the  form  of  a  proposal  for  a  government 
line  of  steamships  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 

This  part  of  the  program  may  come  later  than  some 
of  the  others,  but  it  will  surely  come  sooner  or  later. 
It  would  come  tomorrow  if  the  people  rose  in  their 
might  and  willed  it. 

And  what  a  glory  it  will  be  for  Greater  Los  Angeles 
when  her  argosies,  as  proud  as  those  of  ancient 
Venice,  plough  the  seas  of  both  hemispheres,  bearing 
the  products  of  ten  thousand  factories,  employing 
myriads  of  busy  workmen  and  creating  opportunities 
for  all  who  desire  to  lead  lives  of  useful  activity. 

For  to  this  wonderful  city  and  county,  with  their 
more  purely  American  population  than  is  to  be  found 
elsewhere,  and  with,  consequently,  their  clearer  vision 
of  American  ideals,  their  stronger  hold  on  American 
traditions  and  their  truer  devotion  to  distinctive! 
American  principles,  the  world  must  look  for  the  grand- 
est achievements  in  city-building  and  community 
planning  and  execution.  This  people — unquestionably 
the  most  intelligent — must  demonstrate  themselves  to 
be  the  most  efficient  community  in  the  United  States. 
Owing  their  exceptional  culture  to  the  toil  and  self- 
sacrifice  of  unnumbered  generations  in  the  past,  they 
are  under  sternest  obligations  to  transmit  their  inherit- 
ance, enriched  and  ennobled,  to  generations  that  are  to 
come. 

The  opportunity  is  ours,  but  not  necessarily  all  ours. 
We  can  call  into  cooperation  with  us  not  only  our 
own  thriving  cities  and  towns,  but  the  willing  forces 
of  the  state  and  nation.  With  or  without  their  assist- 
ance, but  better  with  it,  we  shall  -solve  the  vast  and 
far-reaching  problems  confronting  us. 

JOHN  J.  HAMILTON. 

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